Friday, February 5, 2010

What a GREAT Week...

to read, stitch, play outside, paint and cuddle!  And that's exactly what we did.  I have two fun projects in the works (a custom Etsy order) of two journals  a Garden Journal (similar to the one I did for Wurzerl in Germany) and a bird themed journal.

For the garden journal, I painted some white denim with Neocolor flowers and a turqoise background, which I then free motion stitched and did some threadpainting.  The journal itself is a 9x7 composition book which I simply layered various pages with Neocolor and washed with water.  Once that dries (which should be tonight) I am going to go back in and collage with words and pictures  - leaving plenty of room for writing.

For the bird themed journal  - I did something a bit different.   I hand dyed a piece of gorgeous Kona premium muslin with a fresh green Jacquard dye, but instead of immersing it, or painting it on  - I sponged the dye on, creating overlap  and color variation. 

 I cut out a tree with branches out of a brown mottled hand dyed and fused it right in the center to that the trunk of the tree is over the spine of the journal and the branches branch out to the front and back of the book. 

I did some research and printed two birdies out onto some printer fabric which I highlighted with ink and  threadpainted over top of.  A third bird I printed out in greyscale, colored with Tsukineko Ink and then threadpainted on top of that.  The birds are oversized and will be appliqued down once I threadpaint the tree to give the illusion of textured bark.  The inside of this journal is getting some color, words and pictures, as well. A bit more work and these guys will be on their way  - Monday.
Next up: All of the Girlfriend's Traveling Sketchbook pages have found their way home to me.  What a great experience this has been  - 10 artists - 10 journal pages all depicting my theme of "words of wisdom"  in their own special way.  I will be taking pictures of the pages and will be sharing that next week.  I now must decide how I'm going to bind them together  and  come up with a cover design.    Looks like it's going to be a cold, rainy weekend. 

Perfect!

10 comments:

Mary Welsh Hubbard said...

I love those birds! They really look great.

sea-blue-sky & abstracts said...

Glad you have been having fun again, Cathie. Both journals are looking great! Bfn, Lesley

Katiejane said...

These are all just beautiful, Cathie. You put so much work into your art pieces and they really show that. Now is a good time to stay indoors and make art!

Mim said...

I want to take a class with you!!!

Lynn Cohen said...

Such lovely art I like how the colors swim across the cloth.

Jeanne Turner McBrayer said...

These are both very cool...and very original!

Deborah said...

Beautiful! I love the colors!

Unknown said...

AWESOME!!!!

LOVE STITCHING RED said...

Cathie sweetie, hello, missed you! I love all your stuff ... everything! I love that journal cover with the tree branching off from the spine of the book. Those beautifully coloured pages zing and those birdies ... well ... I think I need one of those birdies in my box! A beautiful robin ... I think! You must be real busy at the moment with all those girlfriend sketchbook pages and quilting and painting and stitching

I love your snow too! Have you had any more? Have you got it bad? Today we had the most beautiful winter sunrise this morning over the Cornish rooftops and through the trees, it was so beautiful I had to rush for my camera

Well, bye for now, will mail or chat soon I hope

Lotsa love
Carolyn x

Pursuing Art... said...

Hey sweet girl,

It sounds like you had a great week, fun!

YUM! The flowers are just gorgeous, so YOU! Love the tree and birds cover and it's so cool that you placed the trunk on the spine with the branches branching across the front and back! Sweet, sweet birds!!!

How exciting to get your stitchbook pages back. I look forward to seeing them all! I know your cover design will be fabulous!

Hope you are having a great weekend! Sending a heartfelt hug your way. XO ~me

P.S. Ticks me off, I just realized I forgot about the earrings. My head is just buried in beads! Will be heading to NC this week!!! ;-)

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